


Make Our Circuitry Explode

by Recourse



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternative Universe - Rachel Never Moved To Arcadia Bay, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Parental Abuse, parental neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 16:33:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13217709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Recourse/pseuds/Recourse
Summary: Chloe's curious about things that Steph is certain of.





	Make Our Circuitry Explode

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my friend [vicepoint](http://archiveofourown.org/users/vicepoint) for hashing this out with me and letting me steal all her ideas!
> 
> As a side note, I'm taking January off to finish what I started in November. Collaborations will still be updating, but otherwise I'll be away. Happy New Year!

Steph’s not looking at her.

Not that Chloe should be surprised; most people don’t really look at her these days. And it shouldn’t matter anyway, she’s just skating, she usually doesn’t look at the people who hang at the picnic tables around here anyway. Steph’s running a little D&D game, it looks like, with Brooke and Mikey. Kinda weird how a senior is always hanging around the underclassmen.

Nothing is special about Steph. Except for that whole thing going around where she likes girls. But that’s not a big deal or anything. Steph doesn’t make it a big deal. She just does her thing with her little circle of friends and is kind of really cool about it. She doesn’t worry about how people see her, or if anyone would care that she’s gay, she just is herself so—

Chloe’s face connects with the concrete, and for a minute she’s not sure what’s happened. Then Justin and Trevor wolf-whistle, Justin coming over to pick her up.

“Dude, Chloe, you high or something?” he asks with a chuckle as she gets to her feet, wiping her bloodied nose.

“Just spaced, I guess,” she mumbles awkwardly. Steph’s looking at her _now_ , of course, and she feels the urge to get away from Steph’s concerned face. “I could be, though. C’mon, let’s do that ‘till I stop sneezing blood.”

She’s grateful to turn away from Steph. She’s being weird again. Pot will make her weird but in a more normal way.

 

* * *

 

Someone mentioned that Steph burns DVDs for people and rents them out or sells them or...something. So here’s Chloe, waiting at the edge of the quad for some magical burst of bravery to propel her ass across to Steph’s table, where she sits idly with her feet up, reading some book.

Jesus, Chloe. You could just look this stuff up and pirate it. Or search Netflix or something. You don’t need personal recs from Blackwell’s resident lesbian like she’s some kind of expert, God. And yet here she is, script rehearsing in her head, staring across the lawn at Steph like a moron.

Fuck it. Woman up, Chloe. Go do it.

She stalks towards her gracelessly, stepping through a circle of preps (much to Chase’s chagrin) and stopping right in front of Steph, who looks over her book with caution in her eye.

“Hey, Steph.” Chloe tries to keep her voice low. Cool. Smooth.

“...Hey, Chloe. What’s up?” There’s an odd quirk in Steph’s smile. “You look like you’re on a mission.”

Chloe coughs. Fuck. “No, I mean, someone just told me you like, bootleg DVDs?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Looking for anything?”

“Got any lesbian—” Fuck fuck _fuck_ her voice cracked “—movies you like?”

Steph’s smirk just gets a lot bigger. “Yeah, a couple. Kinda my thing. Only not because most of ‘em are garbage.” She looks Chloe up and down. “You know, if you haven’t seen them, you can just come over to my place. We can try some out.”

“Oh, uh…” Wait, did Steph just ask her on a date? Chloe’s stammering. Say something. Stop looking at Steph’s eyes that’s only making it worse. “I mean, sure, n-not like I got anything else to do.”

“Cool. Can I get your number?”

Bewildered, Chloe recites her number, and gets Steph’s back. The bell rings and Steph stands up, stuffing her book back in her bag. “I’ll text you after school, we can meet up. Take the bus to my house.” She gives Chloe a friendly wave and a smile as she heads into the building, and she’s left standing there, completely confused.

But, well.

It’s not like she has anything better to do.

 

* * *

 

They meet up at the bus stop, Steph sitting down next to Chloe on the dividing wall between campus and the road. There’s an awkward silence between them for a few seconds, and then Steph asks, “So what kinda movies are you normally into, anyway?”

 _Besides when I awkwardly ask about lesbians, you mean,_ Chloe thinks. “Uh, mostly sci-fi stuff. I was really into Blade Runner when I was a kid.”

“When you were a kid, huh?” Steph says, eyebrows raised. “Musta been a cool kid.”

Chloe chuckles. “The coolest. Don’t, uh, talk to anyone who went to Arcadia Elementary if you wanna believe that though.”

“Sure, ‘long as you don’t ask around the middle school.” Steph cracks a smile at her.

“Anybody else coming?” Chloe asks, looking around.

“Nah, just us. My parents aren’t gonna be home for a while so we don’t have to worry about them walking in on us and being weird, either.”

Right. God. They’re going to go watch something gay. Chloe shouldn’t be this nervous. Steph’s not acting nervous at all. It feels kinda unfair. “So,” she begins, trying not to come off as a total mumbly loser, “Your parents, uh, cool with the whole thing?”

“I mean, they’re straight,” Steph says with a smirk. “They’re weird about it but they pretend not to be. They just kinda...avoid the basement anytime I’m watching or playing something gay.”

“Playing?” Chloe asks.

“Yeah, Mass Effect and stuff. Things where you get to kiss girls.”

“I didn’t know there were games like that,” Chloe admits quietly.

“Oh, I have so much to teach you.” And then Steph _winks_ , and Chloe has to look away. The bus arrives and the gaggle of students and their talking means she’s spared from trying to find a response to that.

They find seats next to each other, and Chloe looks straight ahead, trying not to be awkward and weird, until she feels Steph bump her shoulder. She glances over and sees her holding one earbud out like a little question mark.

Shrugging, Chloe takes it, and closes her eyes. Steph’s music is...odd. Electronic, muffled vocals, everything fading into a swarm of sound. But Steph isn’t looking for her response, just leaning against the window and enjoying the moment.

Steph is _really_ cool.

Chloe doesn’t like to let herself think that about people. But Steph’s been interesting for a long time. Chloe never felt like she had an opening, but it looks like she always did. Steph will just do this for anyone, it seems. Or maybe Steph’s seen her around and thinks _she’s_ cool. Because she is. Totally cool and chill and definitely not having sweaty palms and definitely not wiping those surreptitiously on her hoodie.

She tries to focus and just be there in the moment with Steph, closing her eyes and hearing the beat. She can feel how close together they are, even without sight.

Quit being weird, Chloe.

Steph takes out the buds and taps her on the shoulder when they reach her stop, and they file out with the rest of the kids, Steph pointing the way down the sidewalk.  “So how come you’ve never played D&D with us?” Steph asks as they get out of the main body of the crowd.

“What?” Chloe asks. “Why would I?”

“I mean, you’re a nerd, obviously, so why wouldn’t you?” Steph’s smiling at her again. It’s disarming.

“What? I’m not a nerd.”

“Nerds can skate too. You don’t have to be just one thing, you know.”

“Is this senior wisdom I’m getting?”

Steph elbows her. “No, it’s me saying you’re cool, hang out with me more.”

“O-oh. I mean, yeah, sure, if you can catch me.”

“Like you’re so busy. When do you have to be home?”

“Hardly matters,” Chloe says with a sort of aggressive shrug. “Nobody really _wants_ me home, they just think I should be.”

“Oh. Gotcha. C’mon, this one.” Steph leads Chloe up the stairs to a small, squat little red house, getting her keys out of her pocket. She leads Chloe inside and down the stairs into the basement, displaying the giant TV down there and assorted couches with a flair. “The viewing chamber,” she says in a dark tone, making Chloe chuckle. “One sec, I’ll grab a selection from my room.”

Chloe expects Steph to jump upstairs, but instead she maneuvers her way into a hallway in the basement, heading for the end of it. “Literally living in your mom’s basement. Nice, Steph.”

“I live my truth,” Steph says, bowing as she walks backwards into her room. Chloe takes a seat on the couch, eyeing the coffee table and trying to size up whether people use it as a footrest or not. She notes a 360 hooked up to the TV, and wonders if Steph would ever let her borrow it. Or come over to play things with her. Mass Effect, she called it?

God. Chloe needs to _chill._ Just because this is suddenly really interesting doesn’t mean she gets to be a freak about it. Not in front of Steph, anyway. Alone she can feel as freakish as she wants. She usually does if she thinks about it too long.

Steph returns and dumps a pile of jewel cases onto the coffee table, each labeled in neat black Sharpie. “All right. I totally went through a phase of getting every lame lesbian movie off the net, so we got options.”

“Uh,” Chloe says eloquently, looking at the labels and realizing it might as well all be hieroglyphics for how much information she has on it. She’s kinda not been thinking about it too hard or doing any research, hoping Steph would shepherd her along.

Steph smirks at her, which is a thing she’s been doing a lot and Chloe feels weird about it. “Okay, nothing ringing a bell. Then we go with the classic.” She holds up a disc labeled _But I’m A Cheerleader!,_ wiggling it back and forth. “It’s a comedy set in a gay conversion camp.”

“Wow, sounds really uplifting,” Chloe says, raising her eyebrows.

“You want me to lead you to Lesbos or not, Chloe?”

Chloe feels a rush through her and ignores it. “Okay, okay, I’m putting my faith in you, though.”

“Damn right you are. If I can’t have nerdy knowledge on movies and lesbians alike, what good am I?” Steph leans over and puts the DVD into the 360, then plops down on the opposite side of the couch from Chloe.

The opening shot of the movie is _very_ distracting.

 

* * *

 

Chloe is not tearing up.

It’s a dumb fucking movie Jesus Christ girl stop looking so stupid in front of Steph.

She looks away as the credits start to roll and subtly (she hopes) wipes her eyes. Steph shifts and looks over at Chloe. “So what’d you think?” she asks.

“Really funny, actually.” Also some scenes in there were a lot to take in especially with Steph sitting right beside her and God Chloe hopes her face doesn’t still get super red and obvious anymore. “Kinda cute, too,” Chloe ventures boldly. Steph won’t find that weird, will she? Why would she, she’s totally normal about it, why can’t you be?

“Heh, yeah. God, Clea DeVall was like, such a big deal for me when I was a freshman.” Steph sighs wistfully. “Great hair in this one.”

Chloe swallows. “So, um, you knew that early, huh?”

“Earlier, really. I blame Carrie Fisher for everything.” Steph smiles at her. “I know the bikini is like super gross in retrospect, but little baby Steph was not thinking about male gaze at the time.”

“Ugh, I know what you mean. Every time I go back to watch Blade Runner there’s that really shitty scene with Deckard and Pris just staring me in the face, like, hey this movie was made for dudes,” Chloe complains. “I usually just skip it.”

“Mhm. I’m not skipping any of _Jedi,_ though. Not even the Ewoks.”

“Now that’s integrity.” Chloe finds herself smiling. This could be...good. Maybe. Steph’s easy to talk to and doesn’t ask why _you_ ask weird stuff. Maybe that’s what she needs.

The door opens upstairs, and Steph calls out, “Hey Dad!”

“Hey, Steph.” The man in question walks a couple steps down so he can see the two of them. “Who’s your, uh, friend?”

“Chloe.” The girl in question points to herself. “Just hanging out after school. I’ll go home for dinner soon.”

“Aw, really?” Steph says. “Thought you said your parents don’t care.”

“Just the one, my mom,” Chloe corrects. “But, might as well not cause a scene, y’know?”

“Well, have fun, girls.” Steph’s dad walks back upstairs and Chloe lets out a little sigh of relief.

“Planning to go now?” Steph asks.

“Uh, yeah, guess I should.”

“Wanna take a movie with you?”

“N-nah, I don’t really have anything to carry it in,” Chloe notes. “I should probably get a new backpack…”

“How long have you just been chilling without one?” Steph asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Look, sometimes you just let things go because they’re dumb.” Chloe folds her arms. “Don’t try and make me a straight-A student, Steph.”

“Hey, all right, just prodding.”

“But, um…” Chloe scratches the back of her neck, looking down at her feet. “I could...come over again sometime and watch another one?”

“Sure, anytime. But I’ve got your number now so I’m roping you into the next campaign.”

“Oh, what a terrible price to pay,” Chloe bemoans, putting her hand to her chest and throwing her head back. “Regular friendly social contact! I may die.”

Steph giggles, which, unfair. “Your life can’t be that depressing, Chloe.”

“Oh ye of little faith. Wait until I tell you about the dickbag my mom’s dating. Ugh, fuck, I really hope he’s not there tonight.” Chloe grimaces as she stands up. “Well. Better go face the inspection, I guess.”

Steph bids her good luck as she heads up the stairs and out the door. Once outside, she lets go of her breath.

So that went...astonishingly well. She could get used to that.

 

* * *

 

She does get used to it.

As promised, within a week Chloe’s suddenly splitting her time between the campus D&D group and the skatepark, letting Steph torture her with scenarios she swears are _designed_ to punish her for playing a badass barbarian chick instead of same lame wizard like Brooke.

She does get a new backpack. She needs to keep her character sheet somewhere.

It’s a nice escape from home, which is starting to feel more like some bleak prison awaiting a new warden. David’s coming by a lot more often these days, acting like he knows anything about Chloe or her life. She barely gives him the time of day. She’s going to school more often now. It’s where Steph is, so, might as well be there and not somewhere else.

She doesn’t tell Steph that her grades are going up. Doesn’t want to give her a big head. She’s just...there, and there’s nothing else to do so she does the work. Not a big deal, or anything.

If Joyce notices that the school isn’t calling home as much anymore, she doesn’t say. It’s like she and David only want to talk to Chloe if something’s wrong. That is, until one Saturday morning, after David’s slept over ( _ugh_ , Chloe’s headphones got a lot of use last night) and they’re all doing the standard silent-as-the-grave breakfast until Joyce speaks up.

“So, Chloe, David and I were talking last night…” she begins, moving hash browns around her plate with her fork and looking at them instead of her daughter.

“Is that what the kids call it these days?” Chloe asks.

David chokes on his coffee, and Chloe gets a moment of smug satisfaction before Joyce snaps, “Inappropriate for the breakfast table, Chloe! Or ever!”

Chloe chuckles under her breath, and Joyce scowls and narrows her eyes. “We were _talking_ about David moving in,” she continues.

Chloe freezes up. “No,” comes out of her mouth almost without her permission.

“That’s not your call to make,” David says immediately.

“Mom, Jesus, does he have to be here for this?” Chloe pleads. “You _know_ he hates me—”

“I do not, Chloe!” David interrupts. “I just think—”

“I need discipline, I’m uncontrolled, I need a _father figure_ , I fucking know, David!” Chloe seethes, tightening her fists on the table. “I’ve never heard you say one goddamn positive thing about me!”

“Chloe,” Joyce warns. “This is exactly why—”

“Is it, Mom?” Chloe shoots back. “What the fuck have I done lately to piss you off? I’ve been _fine._ What do I need him for, exactly?”

“Chloe!” Joyce shouts, shutting Chloe up for a moment. She lets out a sigh, putting her fist to her forehead. “Bills still need to be paid even if you happen to be better at not getting caught these days.”

“Not getting caught?” Chloe’s voice breaks. “Because I couldn’t have gotten better. Right. Thanks.”

“No, I—I mean—”

“Doesn’t matter how much this _creep_ makes my skin crawl,” Chloe says, pointing at David and watching his face contort. “More important for you to get cash and a good dicking than let your kid be comfortable at home, right?”

“That’s enough!” David shouts, slamming his fists on the table and stunning both women into silence. “I will not sit here and listen to you disrespect us both like this. Chloe, this isn’t us asking. This is us telling. You’re a _child._ You don’t get a say in how this house is run.”

Chloe stands up. “Yeah. You’re right. I don’t. So why should I even be here?” And she heads for the door.

“Don’t you walk away from this, missy! I expect an apology!” David shoots up from the table and goes after her, grabbing her wrist and holding her back.

“Get your hands off me!” Chloe shouts, pushing against him.

“I am not gonna let you just walk away—”

She manages to get herself free, and then he slaps her.

Everyone freezes, Joyce in the middle of getting up herself. Chloe feels tears welling up in her eyes, rapidly trying to blink them away.

“I—I didn’t mean that, Chloe, I just…”

Chloe turns and runs. She hears them shouting as the door slams shut behind her, but she’s gone, gone, gone.

She’s not even sure where she’s going, at first. Just away. She stops at a playground where her best friend once nearly broke her ankle falling off the slide. She sits down on the swings, watching a few kids play groundies and periodically wiping at her eyes, trying to ignore the sting on her cheek. Her breath slowly comes back to her. She wonders if he left a mark on anything but her pride.

She’s not going back home tonight. She can’t stand the thought. So where can she go?

She scrolls through the contact list in her phone.

Steph wouldn’t ask questions.

She takes a deep breath. Totally cool, totally normal Chloe, asking if she can come hang at Steph’s for...an indeterminate amount of time. Totally cool, one hundred percent normal.

She struggles to form a text, and eventually just goes with _mind if i come over?_

Steph replies quickly with _Sure! I’m bored as hell anyway. Finally looking into more lesbian cinema?_

Chloe lets herself smile a little. That sounds really good. A nice distraction from goddamn heterosexual reality. It feels like it’s been shoved in her face _hard_ this morning.

_i just wanted to chill but i am 300% down lets do it_

_address?_

Chloe plugs Steph’s reply into the GPS app and wanders through town until she finds herself in a familiar area. She hops up the steps to the door and rings the bell, and is greeted a second later by Steph’s dad. This close, she gets a much better look at him. Skinny, nerdy type, with Steph’s brown hair and thick eyebrows. “Hey, Mr. Gingrich,” she says with a little wave. “Steph home?”

“Yeah, she’s downstairs. Chloe, right?” he asks, looking her over. “Jeffrey,” he adds, sticking out a hand.

“...yeah, hi.” Chloe itches to get away from him, even though it’s not his fault she’d rather just _not_ with adults right now. “Can I get by?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Didn’t mean to get in your way.” Jeffrey awkwardly stands off to the side and Chloe breezes past him, heading into the basement to find Steph on the couch playing some sci-fi third-person shooter and seemingly kicking ass at it.

“Hey, Chloe,” she says, hitting pause for a moment. “How’s it going?”

“Shit,” Chloe replies, sitting down next to her. She wonders if she should have been on the other side of the couch or if that’d be awkward. Or if she’s just awkward, in general.

“Sorry, that sucks. Parent problems or...?” Steph unpauses and goes back to flinging across the screen in brilliant displays of blue light.

“Apparently the shitbag my mom is dating is moving in. And I had to hear them fuck last night, so that was great,” Chloe says, leaning back and deciding it’s probably cool to put her feet up on the table.

“Hell chamber,” Steph remarks as she shotguns a dog to death, then turns around and throws herself at another goon. “Why do you think I live in the basement?”

“If I could I would, nerds have the right idea,” Chloe notes.

“You, D&D player, are still saying ‘nerds’ like you aren’t one of us.” Steph smirks as she enters a conversation in the game, having her character blast a monologuing NPC into ash. “Swear I’ll stop as soon as I get to a save point,” she adds.

“Hey, let me keep a _little_ cred.”

Chloe relaxes and watches for a while. Steph’s good at this. “What game is this?” she asks.

“Mass Effect 2. Second playthrough, wanted to Renegade it up.”

“The gay one?”

Steph chuckles. “Yes, Chloe, the gay one.”

“This mostly just looks like the shoot-dudes one.”

“My girlfriend and I are on a break. I kinda died for two years.”

Chloe laughs, then thinks. “...did you get this just because you could…?”

“Nah, it came as kind of a shock to me back when I played the first one. I was still kinda scared of actually telling anyone.” Steph groans. “God, I am never gonna forget my mom walking in during the sex scene…”

Being here with Steph, talking about this stuff, it feels so...safe. So different from school or home. Steph makes it easy, opens up when Chloe’s afraid to, answers her questions with gentle humor and without judgement. Once she’s saved and put a new movie in, Chloe finds herself relaxing into the situation around here.

She tries not to pry too much into Steph, but she feels like she does anyway, as the day rolls on. Steph never questions why Chloe asks her how she knew, why she’s happy being out, or about the girls she’s kissed (two; neither went anywhere, according to her.) Chloe watches her play her game, cheering her on, taking the controls to test out Steph’s murderous flying woman, and then eventually settling down for more movies that let Chloe forget about it all for a while, that bring her into worlds where none of this is confusing and it feels good instead of stomach-lurching. Lunch and dinner fly by, despite the stilted conversation with parents at the kitchen table, and then they’re in Steph’s room, listening to music while Steph studies and Chloe relaxes on her bed, browsing on her phone and pointedly ignoring Mom’s incessant texts.

Chloe looks at the clock and realizes it’s almost ten. Jesus, how did that happen? It’s so easy to be here that Chloe didn’t realize what a pain she’s been.

But God, does she not want to go home.

She clears her throat, and Steph looks over at her. “Hey, Steph...is it cool if I stay the night?” she asks.

“Sure. But, hey, Chloe…” Steph bites her lip, looking nervous. “Why don’t you wanna go home?”

Chloe freezes up, and Steph must notice, because she immediately says, “You don’t have to tell me or anything, I just thought you might wanna talk.”

Chloe sighs, sinking into Steph’s pillows. “He hit me.”

“Oh, shit,” Steph murmurs softly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Didn’t leave a mark, but...I mean, I was being an asshole, but I don’t want him in the house and mom doesn’t care at all. You know what she said this morning? She said that I was getting better at not getting caught ditching. Instead of, y’know, assuming I was just _going_ again.” Chloe sniffs. “She doesn’t...how could she think that about me? She and that prick both just think I’m a, a loser who can’t do anything right, it doesn’t matter what I do or don’t do, just…”

Fuck, she’s tearing up, in front of Steph, like an idiot.

“I’m so sorry, Chloe.” Steph gets up and crosses the room, joining Chloe on the bed. She lies on her side, supporting her head with one hand, the other hesitantly reaching out for Chloe.

“No, I’m sorry, fuck, what do you care,” Chloe mumbles. “It’s stupid. It’s my fault.”

“It’s so not. People just...do that. Get one version of you in their head and that’s all you are to them. Had it happen to me enough.” Steph’s hand finally lands on Chloe’s shoulder, smoothing back and forth.

“S-so why did you let me hang out here all day?” Chloe asks, turning to face her. “You didn’t feel sorry for me the whole time, right?”

“I dunno. Maybe you’re my friend. And maybe…” Steph pauses, a small smile coming to her lips. “Maybe I think you’re kinda cute, and that’ll let you get away with anything.”

Well, that knocks the wind right out of Chloe. “Oh,” is the only response she can really give, and Steph frowns.

“That’s...that’s okay, right? I didn’t just make it weird?”

“No, no, I, uh…” Chloe swallows. “I think I like it.”

“You think?” Steph asks, that smile returning.

“Yeah.” The word comes out like breathing. Steph’s eyes _sparkle._ Chloe didn’t know that eyes really did that.

Steph shuffles closer, cuddling up to Chloe. They shuffle and find a position that’s comfortable and their breathing finds a rhythm. Chloe likes it here, in her arms, Steph’s nose nuzzling against her neck. Her heart pounds at first, but slowly settles into a contented, sleepy beat, and they fall asleep with the lights still on, tangled in each other.

 

* * *

 

When Chloe wakes in the morning, she’s surprised to find that she didn’t fall asleep on the couch last night while watching _Imagine Me and You_ and have really gay dreams about Steph, and that in fact it was all real and she’s in Steph’s bed and apparently Steph got up in the night and changed into a cute matching cami-shorts set of pajamas and wow a lot of her is touching Chloe.

She swallows, trying to find a way out of Steph’s ironclad big-spoon position and failing to see a path out without waking her. But Steph had made the first move, and been all cuddly and cute and nice and oh _no_ she has it bad. Steph’s finally answered the real question that Chloe has trying to ask her this whole time.

Yes, Chloe Price is gay as hell.

Steph stirs behind her, making cute sleepy sounds as she wakes. They separate slowly as Chloe turns over, then come back together, foreheads touching. Steph’s groggy smile is worth everything that had brought Chloe here last night, she’s sure of it.

“Hey,” Steph murmurs, reaching up and ghosting her fingers across Chloe’s cheek. “Got somewhere to be?”

And Chloe abruptly realizes she has no change of clothes and hasn’t showered for two days and doesn’t even have any homework to do here. God, how does Steph _stand_ her?

“I, um…” Chloe feels so stupid. She’s already messing this up. “I should probably go home. Just to grab stuff. I can come back, though!”

“Mmkay. You did sleep in all your clothes,” Steph teases, running her hand down Chloe’s side and sending shivers up her spine. “Come back whenever you want.”

“Y-yeah.” Chloe slowly extracts herself, getting out of bed. Steph sits up, taking a pair of glasses from the nightstand so she can see Chloe better. Oh, God, she has glasses. She is way too cute in them. They have to be for when her contacts are out, but...it’s very good, is all Chloe can think, to see her like that.

“Good luck sneaking through that warzone, Chloe,” Steph says with a little wave. Chloe checks her phone. Joyce promises that things will be better, they can talk about it, once she comes home. She puts her hand on Steph’s doorknob, then considers.

She turns back to Steph. “Hey, um…”

“Yeees?” Steph asks, batting her _goddamn eyelashes_ at Chloe.

Chloe will not be defeated by so base a tactic. She walks back over to the bed, and...immediately loses her nerve again, so she resorts to mumbling out, “Can I kiss you?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask that for _weeks._ ”

Chloe’s heart leaps in her chest as she leans down and Steph leans up, cupping her cheek, bringing her close. She may taste a bit like morning breath, but she feels soft and welcoming.

As Chloe leaves that morning, she knows that whatever she’s going back to, she’ll have shelter from.

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> _Is this just vulgar electricity?_  
>  _Is this the edifying fire?_  
>  _Does your smile's covert complicity_  
>  _Debase as it admires?_  
>   
> 


End file.
